With an El Niño weather system forecasted for this year, some meteorologists say it could be one of the strongest on record. But Drew Lerner of World Weather Inc., says he thinks people have some misconceptions of El Niño from all the hype.

"The general media has had a tendency to over-hype this El Niño," Lerner says. "In this case, when [meteorologists] talk about the intensity of El Niño, all they're talking about is how warm the ocean temperatures are out in the equitorial region of the eastern Pacific ocean. All they're saying is the temperatures haven't been this warm before in that particular area. It has nothing to do with how El Niño impacts different areas around the world."

He says the affects of El Niño depends on the weather systems it interacts with. For example, if El Niño passes through a region experiencing calmer weather patterns, it won't have as much of an impact as it would if weather was already geared up to be unstable.

However, he and other meteorologists say this year's forecasted El Niño will mean a milder fall and winter on the Prairies.

"Starting with Alberta and some of British Columbia, [we'll see] very warm temperatures starting to evolve as we get out into the October, November time period," Lerner says. "As we get into December and January, that will expand all the way into Manitoba and western Ontario, and as we get into the latter part of winter and early spring, it'll still be warm across many areas, relative to normal."

Lerner says in terms of precipitation, snowfall is expected to be below average, which is typical of El Niño events.